Interconnector Watch: Tuesday 8 September 2026

Four of the NEM's six interconnectors are binding at capacity this morning, indicating a heavily constrained network shaping today's price spreads. VIC-NSW is exporting 622 MW from Victoria into New South Wales, sitting right at its 622.45 MW export limit — this flow is helping cap NSW prices at $89.89/MWh despite NSW carrying the tightest supply-demand balance of the mainland regions (8,034 MW demand). Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 462 MW from Victoria into South Australia, fully utilised at its -462.27 MW import limit, while Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) adds a further 78 MW into SA, also pinned at its -77.8 MW limit. Combined, these two links are pushing over 540 MW into SA1, consistent with SA's negative price of -$3.61/MWh — a region with sufficient renewable output that it's absorbing imports at negative pricing rather than needing generation support.

Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is binding as well, carrying 307 MW from Tasmania into Victoria, right at its export limit. This flow direction lines up with the wide price differential between TAS1 ($14.50/MWh) and VIC1 ($13.00/MWh) — both low, with Tasmanian generation finding an outlet north given Basslink is maxed out on export capability today. Victoria's own price sits below both NSW and Queensland, and with VIC-NSW fully utilised, Victorian generation surplus cannot flow through in greater volume, keeping Victorian prices suppressed locally while NSW and QLD trade at a premium.

QNI (NSW1-QLD1) and Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) are the only non-binding links, both flowing south from Queensland into NSW — QNI at 824 MW against a 1,220 MW import limit (68% utilised) and Directlink at 33 MW against a 121 MW limit (27% utilised). This spare headroom is capping the NSW-QLD spread; QLD sits at $78.52/MWh versus NSW's $89.89/MWh, a modest $11.37/MWh differential given available transfer capacity remains on both links. No new binding constraint notices have been issued today — active notices on record relate to historical lightning-driven contingency reclassifications on the Basslink corridor (Farrell-Reece, Tungatinah-Waddamana lines) and Victorian Yallourn-Rowville lines from 4-5 September, since cancelled, plus an unplanned outage on the Keith-Kincraig 132kV line in SA still constraining Heywood's effective transfer capability via the S-KHKN constraint set. WA1, operating outside the NEM, is reporting $84.15/MWh independently with no interconnection to the eastern grid.